Golf for a cause

I know I have some readers in the Charlotte area, and if any of you play golf, I know of a fabulous tournament coming up on Friday, September 12 at Emerald Lake Golf Club in Matthews, NC. It's the JP Invitational for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

As you may recall, last year I shared the story of my very good friend and how her son was diagnosed at age 3 with a devastating form of muscular dystrophy (Duchenne muscular dystrophy, or DMD). Please see the site above for more information about the tournament and more information about Jake. If you are unable to participate in the event, you can still support this incredibly worthy cause by purchasing raffle tickets on the registration page of the site. They have some great raffle and auction items! Three raffle tickets can be purchased for only $10 and a single ticket is $5. All tournament proceeds will benefit Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy (PPMD) and go directly toward researching a cure for DMD.

I cannot express how important it is to support this cause. Jake, now 4, is such an inspiration and unfortunately he is not the only one living with the diagnosis. We've got to find a cure in his lifetime and save him and all these precious little boys.

I hope you all will consider lending your support in some way. Prayers are certainly always appreciated as well. :)

Great day for a picnic

Last weekend we had planned to have a beach day. But the more we thought about it, we figured it wasn't a good idea with Thomas's foot still healing (the doctor wanted him to wear shoes most of the day and that just doesn't work at the beach--a place where he'd want to do nothing but run around). So, still wanting to do something outside, we opted for a lunch picnic.

The weather was decent, so we took a blanket and some lunch and found a shady spot on the grounds of Alhambra Hall overlooking Charleston harbor.


If we lay Parker down anywhere, Thomas has to be right beside him:


Always chatting away to him...




Thomas briefly went exploring with his Daddy, but quickly returned to check on his little brother (or bother his little brother!):


Parker looked a little sad while Thomas was gone...


Here's a rare shot of me and the boys (with Thomas holding Parker, more or less).

It was a beautiful day and a good time was had by all, including the flies who decided to crash our party. Thomas was most excited about his "PICK-NICK!" and we'll have to have another one soon. Of course next weekend, assuming the sun shines, we will be having our next picnic on the beach. It will be Parker's first trip. Stay tuned... :)

Cousins at play

Parker was able to spend time with his cousin Eliza recently when her parents had us over for a delicious burger night. Thanks to them for having us even though we brought our sniffly-nosed elder child along with us. :) Eliza is six weeks older than Parker and I can't wait to see them grow up together. Here they are (hopefully Parker is not knocking her in the head!):


I swear Parker does wear more than just that outift. I realized when I went to post these that that is the same outfit he was sporting in his pictures with his friend Sarah Ellen. :) He wasn't too sure of me, it seems (maybe it was the outfit)...


And yes, Parker is six weeks YOUNGER than Eliza. But she is a girl and he is...well, a monster. :)

He's got about 4 lbs and a few inches on her. He's a monster, I tell ya.

As I've mentioned before, Thomas is six weeks younger than his first cousin, Katherine (who lives in sunny CA). And then there is Parker & Eliza. Apparently grandkids come in twos on this side of the family (and 6 weeks apart, at that). Trey keeps saying he can't wait for Christmas this year (we'll be at my parents along with my brothers and their families). It is sure to be a fun time...and quite wild, too.

Back on his feet

Well our little fella is finally back on his feet again!


After his fall on Sunday, last night was the first time he managed to take a few steps. I almost canceled his appointment with the orthopedist for this morning, but decided since he still wasn't walking normally (and I had to keep encouraging him to even try) that we better go. Of course once we got there he had no problems jumping out of the stroller and hobbling over to the play area. But he still wasn't walking quite right...tending to walk on his heel or anyway he could to avoid pushing down on the ball of his foot--"lifting off" was what the doctor called it, I believe.

The doctor feels that he did/does have at least one fracture to at least one metatarsal bone on the top of his foot (probably the 5th). But since he is starting to walk, he felt like instead of a cast it would be better to just get him a sturdy new pair of tennis shoes and as he breaks them in, he will slowly heal his foot. Good thing we were ready to go up a size for him (the last time he measured just above an 8) so it was time for a new pair.

Since I had a few quick returns I needed to make to a couple stores at Towne Centre while we were on that side of town, we ran into the shoe store there and found a new pair of shoes. Wouldn't have been my first choice in another place, but we were desperate! :) He needed a little convincing to walk at first, as I think he had grown to like having his Mommy carry him everywhere...


But as soon as he got up, he was ready to go!

(Yikes, as if I needed a reminder that the front door needs to be repainted!)

I must say, however, that these new shoes depress me a bit. The last time we were in the Stride Rite outlet, the woman said he'd need to get at least an 8.5 and that means we're out of the "toddler" area (only goes up to size 8). And that means, at least at the outlet, no more red Keds Scooters. So sad! I much prefer those to these big boy shoes.

As Thomas sat on the couch next to me earlier, I looked over at him with his new shoes and he just looked so grown up. What happened to my little baby boy!?!? They grow up far too fast.

And by the way, he goes back to see the dr. again in two weeks for an x-ray to make sure everything is healing as it should. Let's hope all is well!

Three months old!

Parker is 3 months old!!! (Two days ago)


He had a sort of "what in the heck am I doing sitting in this chair all by myself?" look the whole time he was posing for these shots, so I took a few on the floor just to show that he does actually smile. See what I mean?


But a lot of the time, he is a very serious baby...


But as you can see from those chubby legs, he is not missing any meals. :) When I took him in last Monday for a few vaccinations, he weighed 15 lbs, 11 oz. Sometimes he feels like he's more like 25. He is solid. But he is sweet too...


At 3 months Parker has good head control and is starting to take in more of the world around him. He smiles easily when he sees a familiar face (or a ceiling fan, or a multitude of other things). He likes to listen along when I read books to his brother (and just to Parker) and he enjoys hanging out on his playmat.

He likes the bouncy seat okay occasionally (it's my savior during bathtime and mealtime for Thomas), but isn't the can't-help-but-sleep-in-the-swing type that his brother was. He will tolerate the swing fine for short periods of time, but doesn't usually fall asleep there. Over the weekend when we were dealing with one of Thomas's many issues, Parker fell asleep in the bouncy out of sheer boredom, I'm sure. I think he had given up on us and fell asleep without protest. He generally goes along with things like that (except at bedtime).

Bedtime I have yet to figure out a routine that works to keep everyone happy (when Trey is not here). Generally Parker has been getting two good naps a day, but by 7 he's tired, but not really ready to go to bed for the night. And, of course, that's when I need to bathe Thomas and get him ready for bed too. So lately it has made for rather difficult evenings, so I'm trying my best to come up with a solution that works for everyone. Until then, Parker just has to hold on until 8 every night (or so) and I get Thomas down and then usually Parker is in bed by 9.

Parker feeds about every 3 hours a day and does very well with that (nursing). In the evening he tends to feed every hour or so for the last few hours before he goes to bed. But once he is down, he is still usually (KNOCK ON WOOD!) sleeping through the night. Sometimes I hear him tossing and turning around 4ish, but most times he gets himself back to sleep. I've had to go in and feed him on a handful of occasions, but not many. Some mornings he will sleep until 8-9 am. This morning I woke him up around 8:30 in an attempt to get him on a better schedule for the day and it worked as I wanted. Other mornings he wakes around 7-8. I'm loving this whole sleeping through the night thing (Thomas didn't did do that until much later on).

When we go out and about during the day, I usually end up wearing him in a baby carrier and he will almost always fall asleep and take a little nap. He has been very good about morning errands or trips to the aquarium or Children's Museum or something. I hope this will continue, but I know I'll have to change up baby carriers as he gets bigger! Here's an older picture of him sleeping in my Moby wrap so you can see what I mean:


All in all, Parker is a good baby. He does cry sometimes just because he wants to be held, but he also goes with the flow more often than not. I think having a schedule worked well for Thomas and I'm hoping I can figure out one that works for Parker soon. It's a little bit harder this time when I have to fit Thomas's schedule into the equation too!

More pictures from today...

A full body shot (but a funny look on his face):


Our sweet boy:


The serious little guy:


And just for fun, here's his little Buddha big brother when he was three months old:


I can't believe three months have already passed us by!!! We feel so blessed to have this sweet addition to our families and I couldn't love our two boys any more. I'm so happy God chose us to parent these sweet little fellows and I cherish the opportunity to watch them grow.

Alternative methods of transportation

It's been over 24 hours and Thomas is still not able to put any weight on his foot without pain. But he's been delightful, despite everything going on with him. He has found other ways to get around (when he doesn't want to wait for me to carry him). There's the old standby of crawling:


And just like an elderly person has her power chair...Thomas has his scooter (though I have to put him on it and take him off):


I'm not overly hopeful that he's going to be miraculously fine tomorrow, but we'll see. Let's hope! At least today is the first day (knock on wood) without a fever since Thursday. Baby steps... Ha ha ha, if only there were!

No more monkeys jumping on the bed!

We spent part of our Sunday getting a special picture of Thomas's foot. See:


Our little monkey decided to fall off our bed this morning. No one saw it happen (I was at the store and Trey was in the room with his back turned for a moment), but he did something to injure his right foot. We can touch it and move it and push on it all we want and it doesn't bother him one bit, but the moment he tries to walk on it, he cries in utter pain. He says it hurts on the outer part of his foot. Right after it happened we tried to give it a little time and take his mind off of it, but when he tried to walk again, the reaction was the same. After a couple of hours, we finally decided we better take him on in to the hospital.

The pediatrician on call, who has more than 30 years experience, immediately said he was sure it was a hairline fracture. The x-ray, however, disagreed. The doctor said it's still possible that there is a minor, minor fracture that could worsen over the next few days and become obvious on x-ray. So we are supposed to keep him off his foot for a while and if it's not better on Tuesday, he has to go see a pediatric orthopedist (that's the right name, right?). Let's all hope and pray it's better quickly! Until then, I've got two non-walking children!

Thomas was a complete star about the x-ray. He loved his wheelchair ride to radiology and was most interested in the x-ray machine. In the end, he got a sticker for his bravery and he proudly placed it on his belly (where stickers always go with him):


And apparently he thought Superman needed a paci:


And did I mention we had to take Thomas to the doctor on Saturday for his ongoing stomach issues (waiting for the appointment with the pediatric GI doc...currently scheduled for mid-September but our doc is supposed to try to move it up) AND he has a fever and a headcold or something (and has since Thursday). It has been a fun time around here lately!

And Parker...well, he's decided not to be the rock-star-sleeping baby we had all grown to love around here. Last night he decided he didn't want to go to sleep until 11:30. Tonight after no real nap all day (except to sleep while we were at the hospital), he finally conked out after lots of tears over the course of the previous hour or two, at 9:00. Hallelujah. I need a drink. :)

I need to stop complaining. All in all, we are very fortunate and blessed with our family. And even when he should feel crummy, Thomas is usually smiling and trying to do things to make us smile:

"Hi, my name is Thomas, and I'm a paci addict."

Hopefully everyone will be all better soon!